School-based suicide-prevention initiative expands statewide

A suicide-prevention initiative led by faculty at WashU School of Public Health and the Brown School is expanding statewide, supported by new funding. The program aims to strengthen how Missouri schools prevent and respond to student suicide risk. The initiative — newly named the Missouri (MO) Hope Policy Academy — helps school districts build evidence-based systems to prevent suicide, to intervene effectively in a suicidal crisis, and to respond appropriately if a suicide occurs. 

“My hope is that this effort will help schools move beyond having policies on paper to developing stronger, more functional systems in practice,” said co-investigator Massy Mutumba, MPH, PhD, an assistant professor at WashU School of Public Health.

With support from the Missouri Suicide Prevention Network, an academic team — led by Ryan Lindsay, MSW, EdD, a professor of practice at the Brown School, and including co-investigators Mutumba and Saras Chung, PhD, a research associate professor at the Brown School — will work in collaboration with the Missouri Behavioral Health Council to develop curriculum and evaluate the scaled-up effort.

“At the upstream level, this initiative focuses on strengthening schools’ capacity to recognize warning signs, respond appropriately to students experiencing suicidal thoughts or behaviors, and support them through prevention, intervention, and postvention processes,” Mutumba said. Postvention refers to activities that promote healing in a community after a suicide death and reduce the risk of additional suicides. “Success at this level would mean that schools have clearer and more actionable protocols, greater confidence among school personnel, and stronger internal systems for responding to youth distress.

“At the same time, effective support depends on whether families can successfully navigate referrals, whether services are accessible and coordinated, and whether school and community systems are prepared to work together,” she continued. “From this perspective, success would also look like stronger coordination across educators, caregivers, mental health professionals, and community partners, so that students and families are not lost during transitions from identification to care.”

Building on a research-based foundation

The initiative builds on work that began in 2019 at the Brown School, when faculty researchers sought to better understand how Missouri school districts approached suicide prevention and response at the policy level. Early research, led by Lindsay and Hannah Szlyk, MSSW, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at WashU Medicine and a member of the secondary faculty at WashU Public Health, examined district readiness and policy infrastructure across the state. 

That work analyzed responses from 166 Missouri school districts and found wide variation in policy readiness. Sixty-three percent of districts reported having a suicide-intervention policy, 55% reported having a suicide-prevention policy, and 43% reported having a suicide- postvention policy. Researchers said the findings reflected structural and resource constraints, particularly in rural and under-resourced districts, rather than failures by schools. 

“These data helped validate what we were hearing directly from school professionals,” Lindsay said. “Districts were being asked to respond to incredibly complex and high-stakes situations, often without consistent policy infrastructure or implementation support.” 

Those findings led to deeper collaboration with statewide school leaders and partners, laying the groundwork for what became the Hope Policy Academy; a Missouri-based initiative designed to help schools develop policies and strengthen the organizational and practitioner-level practices needed to carry them out. 

Schools as central partners 

From the outset, state suicide-prevention leaders identified schools as central partners in preventing child and youth suicide. Bart Andrews, chief clinical officer of Behavioral Health Response and co-chair of the Suicide Prevention in Schools Committee with the Missouri Suicide Prevention Network (MOSPN), said that focus shaped the network’s early structure. 

“When MOSPN was created, the original network members identified schools as one of the primary partners for preventing child and youth suicides,” Andrews said. “The Schools and Suicide Prevention Committee was actually one of the first MOSPN committees created.” 

While national models were considered, stakeholders ultimately favored a Missouri-specific framework built on existing tools developed through collaboration among educators, mental health professionals and state agencies. Those efforts included the Suicide Prevention and 988 Guide for Missouri’s Schools and revisions to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Youth Suicide Awareness and Prevention Model Policy. 

The expanded academy is designed to support districts as they move from policy adoption to meaningful implementation, using Missouri-developed resources rather than introducing an external framework. 

“Schools didn’t want a generic training or a packaged program,” Lindsay said. “They wanted support that helped them strengthen their own policies, practices, and professional judgment in ways that fit their communities.” 

State education officials said the Missouri-specific focus aligns with statewide priorities. Katie Epema, director of school-based mental health in DESE’s Office of College and Career Readiness said the academy directly aligns with the Missouri Suicide Prevention Plan. 

“Having a Missouri-grown, Missouri-led, school-based suicide-prevention academy helps meet priorities within the Missouri Suicide Prevention Plan, particularly around providing training and resources that are relevant to different communities,” Epema said. “By focusing on the school community, the academy recognizes that best practices in suicide prevention and postvention may look different in schools than in other settings.” 

That emphasis on context is intentional, said Chung, who noted that schools operate within layered systems shaped by policy mandates, workforce capacity, resources and community expectations. 

“Our role as researchers isn’t to prescribe a single solution,” Chung said. “It’s to help schools make sense of the policies they’re required to have and translate them into practices that actually work in their buildings, with their staff, and with their students.” 

The Missouri Hope Policy Academy is part of a broader strategy focused on capacity building rather than program replacement, emphasizing policy-level, organizational and practitioner-level support. Regional and virtual communities of practice are planned to support ongoing collaboration among districts. 

“This isn’t a one-off training,” Lindsay said. “It’s part of a long-term effort to strengthen school systems and reduce youth suicide through thoughtful, evidence-informed policy and practice.” 

The Missouri Hope Policy Academy will officially launch with a statewide kickoff event on June 8, bringing together more than 120 school leaders, educators, mental health professionals, and community partners from across Missouri to learn about the academy and begin building regional networks to support implementation. The full-day academy will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Roy Blunt Center for Healthcare Integration & Innovation Building in Jefferson City, with lunch provided. Those interested in participating in the statewide launch can learn more and register here.

A different version of this story was originally published by the Brown School.